Alvin Fog, Texas Ranger

by J. T. Edson

  While there was not a great deal in it, Willie Holstein had a discernible height advantage over his brother!

  The trio also could fit the description of the robbers!

  Against that, according to the embittered neighbor, all three were the pampered sons of well-to-do families and should have no need to repeatedly commit crimes which had brought only small amounts of money and a few items of not too great value as loot.

  On the other hand, neither did there appear to be any valid reason for Willie to be carrying a gun in a shoulder holster. At least, not in one which announced its presence in such a fashion. The party’s clothes precluded the possibility that they had been out hunting and were equally unsuitable for even target shooting on a range.

  Having drawn his conclusions, Alvin found himself on the horns of a dilemma. He had not yet been sworn in as a Texas Ranger, which would simplify matters. Even if he had not already resigned his commission as a deputy sheriff in Rockabye County, his appointment would have given him no legal jurisdiction in Austin. So, whatever action he decided to take, he must carry it out in the capacity of a private person and could only make a citizen’s arrest if his suspicions were confirmed.

  One solution presented itself.

  Before they had parted at the Cattlemen’s Hotel, where Branch had delivered Alvin on leaving the National Guard’s range to collect his Cunningham, they had arranged to meet that evening and take dinner together. The sergeant was due to arrive shortly, but Alvin did not know exactly when he would put in an appearance. Nor could he guess how Branch would react when he came. There was so little to go on and it seemed pushing the bounds of coincidence to extreme limits that three criminals they had only heard about a few hours earlier should be staying in the same place as Alvin. What was more, there was a chance that they would leave before Branch arrived. Or they might conceal all the evidence which could incriminate them.

  Taking everything into consideration, Alvin felt sure the elderly sergeant would prefer him to act on his own initiative under the circumstances rather than wait for guidance. Even if he did no more than try to look into the trio’s cabin, or eavesdrop on whatever conversation might be taking place, it would be better than waiting passively until Branch joined him.

  Reaching his decision, Alvin went into his bedroom. He had changed into a white sports shirt and flannels earlier, removing the spurs, but retaining the boots. Drawing on his shoulder holster, which had a webbing loop that passed behind his back and around the right shoulder, he slid the strap at the rear of the rig through his waist belt and secured it by joining a press stud. Thrusting home a loaded magazine, he drew and released the cocking slide to feed the uppermost round into the Colt’s chamber. Having set the manual safety instinctively, he placed the weapon in the spring clips. Unlike in Willie’s case, once he had donned his navy blue blazer, there was nothing visible to show he had such a device on his person.

  Leaving by the back door, Alvin made his way to the rear of the trio’s accommodation. He paused, listened and looked into the bedrooms. They were empty and nothing suspicious was to be seen in either. So, guessing that the lay-out would be similar to the quarters he was renting—with the sitting-cum-dining room and kitchen at the front—he decided to try his luck in that direction and via the side door.

  There was one problem, Alvin realized. The cabins on either side had occupants who might draw the wrong conclusions and betray him if they saw what he was doing. A moment’s thought supplied the solution. While three young women lived on the opposite side to his cabin, he had seen them leave earlier and, as their car was not outside, he felt sure they had not yet returned. So he would be able to carry out his reconnaissance with less chance of being observed in the gap adjacent to their quarters. What was more, the sitting room was on that side and he expected his quarry would be in it rather than the kitchen.

  Arriving at his objective, Alvin found as he had hoped that—although the outer mesh screen was closed—the door stood open. Peering around stealthily, he saw only the brothers in the room. Having removed their jackets, collars and ties, they were sitting at the table drinking beer. However, Willie was not wearing a shoulder holster. Yet their conversation was suggestive, if not incriminating.

  ‘When do we hit another one?’ Karl was asking.

  ‘Soon,’ Willie answered.

  ‘I should hope so,’ the younger brother declared, gesturing towards a cigarette case which lay open on the table. ‘Those are expensive.’

  ‘But worth it, brother mine, well worth it!’ the elder stated. ‘When those girls have taken a few drags, they’re game for anything.’

  ‘You can say that again!’ Karl enthused. ‘Millie’s the cat’s meeow and, boy, can she neck!’

  ‘Neck!’ Willie scoffed. ‘She does a whole lot more than that.’

  Engrossed in the conversation and drawing conclusions about the type of cigarettes in the case, Alvin failed to notice that he was under observation himself.

  Coming from the rear corner of the girls’ cabin, Hubert Blitzer paused as he saw the small figure clearly listening at the side door of his quarters. A scowl came to his surly features. Then, hoping his cousins were not saying anything indiscreet, he began to advance on tiptoe. Closing into reaching distance without being detected, he grabbed and twisted the eavesdropper’s, right wrist around in a hammerlock.

  ‘All right, you nosey son-of-a-bitch!’ Blitzer growled, throwing his left arm around and across his victim’s throat to stifle any outcry. ‘If you’re so interested in what’s being said, go in and you’ll be able to hear better.’

  While speaking, the burly young man reached with his left foot to draw open the screen door. Retaining his holds, he pushed his captive in ahead of him.

  ‘What the hell?’ Willie ejaculated, coming to his feet and his action was duplicated by his sibling.

  ‘I caught this little bastard on the Erie outside,’ Blitzer replied.

  ‘Why would he be?’ Willie demanded, knowing the term on the Erie meant to eavesdrop.

  ‘You heard the man, squirt!’ Blitzer snarled, sounding as tough and menacing as he could manage while loosening the pressure his left arm was applying. ‘Why should you be doing a columnist on him?’

  ‘Well now,’ Alvin drawled, standing passive and giving his voice the timbre of a less well educated person. ‘Could be’s how I know the way you good old boys’s buying your muggle ’n’ want in.’

  ‘You know—?’ Karl commenced, alarmed by the prospect of an outsider having discovered the means by which the money to purchase the marijuana cigarettes in the case had been acquired.

  ‘Bag your head!’ Willie yelled, his Middle West accent growing more pronounced in his consternation as he brought his brother’s incautious words to a halt. ‘So you think you know—’

  ‘No, hombre,’ Alvin corrected, but remaining motionless in his captor’s grasp. ‘I know I know.’

  ‘To hell with what you know!’ Blitzer spat out, drawing his left arm back and starting to force the trapped limb higher with his right hand. ‘It’s not going—!’

  The actions, based upon their recipient’s behavior to that point, proved to be a mistake!

  Although Alvin had been aware of Blitzer’s quiet approach, he had allowed himself to be grabbed when it had become apparent—from the shadow on the wall which the other had overlooked—that he was not going to be assaulted in any other way. He had guessed, correctly, that he would be taken into the cabin for questioning and, as this served his purpose, he had seen how it would be advantageous not to prevent it happening. In the event of his suspicions proving unfounded, he would be able to claim truthfully that he was compelled to go in and had not entered uninvited.

  Feeling the holds being tightened, Alvin concluded that the time for staying passive was over. If he continued to behave submissively, he might suffer an incapacitating injury. So he accepted that he must now take the offensive.

  Slumping a little, the small Texan caused
Blitzer to think he was on the point of collapsing through fear. Feeling the grips on his neck and wrist relaxing slightly, he knew he had achieved his purpose. From standing apparently in a state of terror, he was transformed instantly into sudden and very effective motion. Crouching a little on his slightly bent knees, he rotated his torso to add impetus as he thrust back with his left elbow.

  Caught totally unprepared, a startled and pain filled gasp burst from Blitzer. Not only did his right hand leave the wrist, he was unable to retain the position of his left arm. His erstwhile compliant captive wrenched free and the force of the elbow’s jab to the solar plexus sent him backwards to collide with the screen door. It burst open and he toppled through, but managed to remain on his feet.

  Startled by the change which had come over Alvin, Willie recovered first and led the way as the brothers rushed forward. Both had boxed in their Eastern college and neither envisaged any difficulty in dealing with a person they regarded as nothing more than a small country bumpkin.

  Which was a dangerous mistake when confronted by the grandson of Dusty Fog!

  Alvin had learned self-defense from a relative of the man who had taught the Rio Hondo gun wizard a devastatingly effective form of unarmed combat which in the 1920s was still but little known in the Western Hemisphere. [19] Putting his training to use, he had no hesitation over going to meet the brothers. Leaping into the air, he kicked the ball of his right foot against Willie’s chest to send its recipient spinning helplessly into a corner of the room.

  Nor did Karl fare any better. As the small Texan alighted from the assault on his brother, he shot out a classic left jab at the face. It failed to connect. Ducking below the blow, Alvin struck back in a different—yet highly efficient—fashion. Instead of clenching his right fist, he kept the fingers extended together and folded the thumb across the palm. The fingers thrust just below Karl’s breast bone and, experiencing a similar sensation to a time when he had been jabbed in the stomach with the end of a baseball bat, he went into reverse displaying his discomfort.

  Snarling with rage, Blitzer plunged into the cabin. Hoping to spring a similar surprise to the one inflicted upon himself, he reached meaning to grab the small Texan by the shoulders. Alerted to the possibility by hearing him returning, Alvin needed only a brief backwards glance to assess the situation. Turning, he caught the outstretched left hand and, stepping aside, swung around to propel his attacker onwards. Blundering into and falling across the table, which collapsed under him, he was precipitated to the floor.

  Completing his turn with the Colt in his right hand, Alvin directed its muzzle to where Willie was getting ready to attack again. Having brought the elder brother’s movements to a halt, the weapon swung and quelled his sibling’s desire towards further aggressive action.

  ‘That’s better,’ Alvin stated. ‘You’re all under arrest.’

  Coming at the end of the words, there was a crash and the front door burst open. Even as the small Texan was about to swing the automatic that way, he found to his relief that the precaution was not necessary. Stepping warily, a star-in-the-circle Texas Ranger’s badge pinned prominently on his shirt, Jubal Branch entered. He had the Colt Frontier revolver in his right hand and Lightning was at his left side. However, the blue-tick’s earlier appearance of sloth was absent; being replaced by a demeanor which suggested the alertness and menace of a wild predatory creature.

  ‘Howdy, you-all,’ the sergeant greeted, with an air of laconic yet purposeful authority. ‘What’s coming off here?’

  ‘These are the three who’ve been pulling all those hold ups around town,’ Alvin supplied, the words having been directed to him.

  ‘It … it’s a goddamned lie!’ Willie shouted.

  ‘I’ll say it be,’ Branch spat out, running his gaze over the trio and then turning it to Alvin. ‘How in hell could you-all have made such a goddamned fool mistake?’

  To say the young Texan was taken aback by the sergeant’s furious words was an understatement. He had expected that he would receive support even if he was wrong in his suspicions. Instead, Branch’s whole bearing suggested contempt for him and his actions.

  ‘Them three!’ the sergeant continued, before Alvin could speak. ‘Look at ’em, goddamn it! Those stick-ups were pulled by men. These’re nothing but a bunch of college boys. Worse any of ’em dast do’d be go on a panties raid for their frater-nical initeration and not then happen they thought the gals’d fight back.’

  ‘Hey!’ Karl yelped indignantly, writhing with growing annoyance at the disdainful way in which the elderly peace officer was looking at and speaking about them.

  ‘And whoever pulled the stick-ups wouldn’t’ve got whupped by a short-growed button like you-all,’ Branch went on remorselessly, paying no attention to the younger brother. ‘Why nobody with one goddamned lick of half good sense’d reckon any one of ’em could do sic ’em ’cepting live offen their folks’s money.’

  While pleased by the declarations which clearly presumed their innocence, Willie and Blitzer were finding the sergeant’s reflections upon their manhood increasingly distasteful. The effect was even greater upon Karl. Always treated as very much the subordinate by the other two, he was uncomfortably aware that much of what was being said came close to being applicable. None of them had managed to hold down a job since being ‘requested’ to leave college after an incident too many. Nor, apart from the robberies they had been committing, had they ever succeeded in anything they had attempted. The comment about them being dependent upon the bounty of their parents was also true. None of which appealed to Karl’s arrogant, snobbish nature, particularly when he was being reminded of it—taunted about it, would be a better term—by a person he considered to be typical of the semi-illiterate, incompetent law enforcement officers he and his companions had been outwitting with such ease.

  ‘What about—!’ Alvin commenced, meaning to mention the marijuana cigarettes which were now scattered across the floor.

  ‘What about you-all keeping your goddamned flapping mouth shut?’ Branch suggested. ‘The last son-of-a-bitching thing I need is for you to try convincing me these three half-baked college-boy pin brains’d have the guts, or sense, to do more’n go to the back-house without help ’n’ not that happen it was after dark!’

  ‘Is that so!’ Karl howled, jumping forward as he was unable to control himself any longer. ‘Well you’re the one who’s making the mistake. We did the—’

  ‘Shut up!’ Willie yelled, starting after and meaning to restrain his sibling by force if necessary.

  Before the elder brother had taken his second step, despite having remained lying at its master’s side when Karl advanced, Lightning rose in a swift motion. Standing on stiff legs and with tail rigid, a low growl full of menace rumbled from the blue-tick and caused Willie to halt.

  ‘Sure,’ Branch supplemented, without taking his mocking gaze from Karl. ‘Shut up, for shame. Trying to make a poor ole cuss like me think you-all be men enough, or smart enough even, to have done them.’

  ‘We did do them!’ the young man howled, so besides himself with rage that he did not care what the consequences of his behavior might be. ‘You’ll find the coveralls we wear, the guns and the loot we haven’t got rid of yet in the next cabin.’

  ‘Will we now?’ Branch drawled. ‘Well, happen that’s so, I reckon I’ll apologize most humble and admit you did them stick-ups after all.’

  ‘Whooee!’ Alvin ejaculated, watching the three young men being escorted from the parking lot by the policemen the sergeant had summoned. ‘I thought I’d made a mistake there.’

  Half an hour had elapsed since Karl had made his damning admission. A check on the girls’ cabin had produced the items Blitzer had taken there just before finding Alvin eavesdropping outside the trio’s quarters. They had included the Luger mentioned by the witnesses and the poorly designed shoulder holster which had attracted Alvin’s attention when Willie had been injudicious enough to wear it instead of taking it off
during the journey from their most recent robbery.

  Throughout the waiting period, the young Texan had been worried by the way in which the sergeant had acted since arriving. While he had provoked a confession from Karl, he had not given any indication of whether his opinion of Alvin’s judgment and behavior had changed for the better. In fact, beyond mentioning that he had seen Blitzer forcing Alvin to enter the cabin and “done snuck over to find out why”, he had conveyed the impression that he considered the affair was over.

  ‘Depends upon what you-all mean,’ Branch commented. ‘I conclude you allowed you’d got reason to figure they were the ones.’

  ‘Not a whole heap, but some,’ Alvin confessed and explained the circumstances.

  ‘Like you say,’ Branch drawled. ‘Not a whole heap, but enough to take a whirl on. ’Cept that stacking up against odds of three to one’s not the smartest thing to do. I’m not over tooken with that old One Riot, One Ranger” notion, [20] less’n there’s no other way. But I’d say you did right by going in ’stead of waiting and maybe letting ’em get away and you handled ’em real good.’

  ‘All right, I give up!’ Alvin asserted, deciding that acting on his own initiative was not the error. ‘What was my mistake?’

  ‘Figuring’s how I was riled at you in there,’ the sergeant answered with a frosty grin. ‘When all I was doing was trying to get one of them fancy-pants city slickers all pawin’ and bellerin’ mad ’cause a poor, wored-out, un-eddicated, ole country hick like me was disrespecting ‘em something fierce.’